In a balloon catheter to be inserted into a blood vessel or the like, when the balloon is large-sized relative to a diameter of the blood vessel, the balloon is not able to be folded even if a stretchable material is used as a balloon membrane, thus leading to difficulties in inserting the balloon into the blood vessel or the like. For this reason, one has ever devised such a method that an inside of a balloon arranged on distal ends of outer and inner tubes is suctioned while stretching the balloon through a sliding operation between the outer and inner tubes to thereby deflate the balloon into a small size and then the balloon is inserted into the blood vessel until it is allowed to reach and stay at a target site, then followed by injecting a solution or the like into the balloon to inflate the balloon while releasing the stretched state of the balloon. (e.g., see patent document 1, etc.).
One example of such device is shown in FIG. 1. In this drawing, numeral symbol 101 denotes an inner tube, and 102 denotes an outer tube. A stretchable balloon 103 is provided between the distal ends of the inner tube 101 and the outer tube 102. A solution transport path 104 in communication with an inside of the balloon 103 is formed between the inner tube 101 and the outer tube 102. Then, there is provided a syringe 105 that is in communication with the solution transport path 104 to inject a solution into or suction the same from the balloon 103. The inner tube 101 and the outer tube 102 define a shaft 106 of a balloon catheter.
As shown in FIG. 1 (A), when inflating the balloon 103, i) the inner tube 101 is pulled back toward a rear end of the shaft 106, ii) a solution is then injected into the balloon 103 by operating the syringe 105, thereby iii) performing a sequence of operations from releasing the stretched state of the balloon to inflating the balloon.
Also, as shown in FIG. 1(B), when deflating the balloon 103, i) the inner tube 101 is pushed out toward a front end of the shaft 106, ii) the solution inside the balloon 103 is suctioned by operating the syringe 105, thereby iii) performing a sequence of operations from stretching the balloon to deflating the balloon.
As described above, there was conventionally a need to perform the operation for stretching the balloon and the operation for suctioning the inside of the balloon 103 separately from each other in stages; and the operation for releasing the stretched state of the balloon and the operation for inflating the balloon 103 also needed to be separately performed in stages. In either case, therefore, it has taken a lot of trouble and time.